Food Hunt: HEB vs. El Rancho

Recently the YAB surveyed students at EAPrep and asked where their families purhcased groceries. We selected the top two stores and decided that we would put together a list of items for our upcoming scavenger hunt!

On Saturday, we visited local stores such as H-E-B near Springdale and El Rancho (these stores were selected based on survey results!) and studied the way food is organized, the different kinds of food that are ofference, and the prices. Based on our study we found out that both stores appeal or attract low-income people in the area and provide them with low quality food. Everything that was a "good deal" was high in sugar and unhealthy.

The YAB noticed that H-E-B accepts the WIC program which supports healthy produce such as fruits and vegetables. Shockingly the WIC program did not support Kashi cereal but supported alternative cereals that are high in sugar. H-E-B also put the organic items for a certain type of food in the bottom corner and it was to be priced expensively! For example: one organic product that was marked at 6.99 and the same product was placed next to it at 3.99. We thought this was strange.  H-E-B organized the food by letting the junk food overpopulate the whole aisle.

The second store, El Rancho, supported a mixture of fresh produce and deli but also supported cheap and not so healthy foods like Takis, Lucas candies, and processed deli. Overall El Rancho was a supersized grocery where everything was cheap and huge. Our study shows that we need to step up our game and fight back.

Here are a few of pictures that we took while touring:

This add for Taquis really did not sit well with the YAB